II. THE POSITION OF THE DISCIPLES IN THE WORLD AFTER THE OUTPOURING OF THE SPIRIT: 15:1-16:15. Jesus had just promised to His own, in ch. 14, the twofold reunion, heavenly and earthly, in which the separation should issue, the thought of which was now so greatly troubling them. In ch. 15. He transpo... [ Continue Reading ]
1. 15:1-17. After the words: “Let us go hence,” Jesus and the disciples left the room which had just been to them, as it were, the vestibule of the Father's house. Whither do they go? According to _Westcott:_ to the temple, which was open during the nights of the Passover feast. There was suspended... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-dresser._ 2. _Every branch in me which bears not fruit, he takes away; and every branch which bears fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit._ 3. _As for you, you are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you._ ” The pronoun ἐγώ... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 4. “ _Abide in me, and I in you; as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, no more can you, unless you abide in me._ To continue in the vine is for a branch the condition of life, and consequently its only law. All the conditions of fruitfulness are included in th... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 5. “ _I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in me and I in him, this one bears much fruit; for apart from me, you can do nothing._ ” Jesus begins by summarily reaffirming the nature of the relation. While contemplating the natural vine which He has before His eyes, He recognizes in... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 6. “ _If any one abides not in me, he is cast forth as the branch, and is withered; then they gather these branches_, _they throw them into the fire, and they burn._ ” It was in Palestine precisely the season of the vine-dressing; perhaps, as _Lange_ observes, Jesus had before His eyes at this... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask what you will, and it shall be done for you._ 8. _Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so you shall become my disciples._ ” The parallelism between the two conditions indicated, John 15:7, would lead us to expect as the for... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you; abide in my love._ 10. _If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love_, _as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love._ 11. _I have spoken this to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be fulfilled._ ” It... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 12. “ _This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you._ ” Comp. John 13:34. This is the normal relation of the branches to one another, which has as its condition the normal relation of each one to the vine. So _Hengstenberg_ finds in John 15:1-11 the resume of the first... [ Continue Reading ]
ADDITIONAL NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. Vv. 12-17. 1. The statement of John 15:13 is, of course, to be interpreted in view of the subject which is occupying the thought of Jesus. The love of enemies is not under contemplation. 2. The proof which Jesus gives, that He regards them as friends (John... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 13. “ _No one has greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends._ ” In the relation to _friends_, there is no greater proof of love than the sacrifice of one's life on their behalf. There is undoubtedly a greater proof of love, _absolutely speaking_, it is to sacrifice i... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _You are my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you._ 15. _I call you no longer servants, because the servant knows not what his master does; but I have named you friends, because I have made known to you all things which I have heard from my Father._ ” In John 15:14, the emphasis is, not on... [ Continue Reading ]
VV. 15 serves to prove the _reality_ of this position of friends which He has given them. He has shown an unbounded confidence in them by initiating them unreservedly into the communications which His Father made to Him with relation to the great work in which He had called them to labor with Him. T... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 16. “ _You have not chosen me; but I have chosen you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that, whatsoever you may ask the Father in my name, he may give it you._ ” The very origin of the relation thus formed between them depends only on Him.... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 17. “ _I give you these precepts, that you may love one another._ ” The pronoun ταῦτα cannot refer to the ἵνα which follows: “I command you _this, that_ you love one another.” For the plural proves that this expression includes all the preceding instructions and suggestions since John 15:1, pa... [ Continue Reading ]
2. 15:18-16:4. Opposite to this spiritual body whose inward life and outward activity He has just described, Jesus sees a hostile society arise, which has also its principle of unity, hatred of Christ and of God: _the world_, natural humanity, which will declare war against the Church, and which is... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _If the world hates you, know that I have been the object of its hatred before you._ 19. _If you were of the world, the world would love what belongs to it; but because you are not of the world and I have drawn you out of the world, therefore the world hates you._ 20. _Remember the word which I ha... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _But they will do all this to you for my name's sake, because they know not him who sent me._ 22. _If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin._ 23. _He who hates me, hates my Father also._ 24. _If I had not done among them works suc... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 22. This blindness which has prevailed in their entire history (see the discourse of Stephen, Acts 7) might have still been forgiven them, if, at this decisive moment, they had finally yielded. But the rejection of this supreme divine manifestation characterizes their state as an invincible ant... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 23. In the rejection of Jesus there is hatred towards Him, and in this hatred towards Him, the Jewish malignity reveals itself clearly as _hatred of God:_ it is distinguished thereby from a mere ignorance, like that of the heathen. More than this:... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 24. If the testimony which Jesus bore to Himself did not succeed in enlightening them, His works ought at least to have procured credence for His testimony. The one who did not have a consciousness sufficiently developed to apprehend the divine character of His teachings, had at least eyes to b... [ Continue Reading ]
VER. 25. ᾿Αλλά : “ _But_ there is nothing astonishing in this.” The righteous man of the old covenant had already complained by the mouth of David (Psalms 35:19; Psa 69:5) of being the object of the _gratuitous_ hatred of the enemies of God. If their hatred was wholly laid to their own charge, notwi... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _But when the support shall have come, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he shall testify of me;_ 27. _and you also shall testify, because you are with me from the beginning._ ” _ Weiss_ sees in this intervention of the Spirit's testimony a fac... [ Continue Reading ]